The FTSEurofirst 300 Index provisionally closed up 0.3 percent to 1,297.82 points. Media stocks posted sizeable gains, with shares of Vivendi closing up 2.91 percent. The French multinational mass media and telecommunication company announced forecast beating earnings on Friday and said that it was nearer to offloading telecoms operator SFR.

However, Italian stocks closed down 0.4 percent,after the country was warned by the EU Commission that its draft budget for next year risked breaking the rules, bringing the focus back on to the country's high debt level.

Yellen bounce

European stocks matched their counterparts in Asia by pushing higher on Friday as investors cheered remarks from Yellen that the U.S.' monetary stimulus program would remain in place for now.

"No austerity measures are needed. They are dangerous; we should let the automatic stabilizers work. We are willing to take structural measures with a fiscal impact, but not austerity measures," Stournaras told CNBC late Thursday.

Meanwhile in Frankfurt, Andreas Dombret, a member of the executive board of the Deutsche Bundesbank told CNBC that tough austerity reforms by struggling euro zone nations could start to weigh on their economies. He said that "reform fatigue" would be "very, very bad" and "very, very dangerous".